Is God evil?

[Compassionist]

There are many verses in the Bible about God's predestination. https://www.openbible.info/topics/predestination Why would a good God predestine anyone to do evil? Surely, a good God would predestine all to do good? Does the existence of evil prove that God is evil? Surely, a good God would have made all living things to be autotrophs instead of making some autotrophs, some herbivores, some carnivores, some omnivores, and some parasites? Here are some examples of evil events which caused or are causing suffering, deaths, and injustices:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinction_events
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_n ... death_toll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_g ... death_toll
https://thevegancalculator.com/animal-slaughter

[William]

[Replying to Compassionist in post #82

1. Good and evil, happiness and sadness, health and illness are not distributed evenly. If they were, all living things would have equal length of life, equal quality of life, and equal standards of living.
2. If God had made all living things all-knowing and all-powerful, they could protect themselves from all harm but he failed to do it.

Your argument presumes that the existence we presently experience is the only existence there is.

That there may exist other realities than just this one, is beside the point as the focus is on this one in relation to the problem of evil.

[Thomas123]

Compassionist
Post 9 'God is the ultimate evil because he failed to prevent all suffering, injustice, and deaths despite being omniscient and omnipotent. "

Thomas123: Today is Holocaust Memorial Day and they still kill each other on the West Bank. 6,000,000
Jewish people killed by the Third Reich. Many nations share both collective and individual responsibility for this Evil atrocity.

This was raw evil. For people who consider this event in the context of God, it would appear akin to someone leaving an array of sharp knives on a Playschool floor.

I see it like this. This is exclusively of our own making. Yes we might have evolved better,...but we didn't. Collectively we as a species, allowed the reactor that is hate to overheat uncontrollably. Many brave people finally managed to contain this evil.

You would hope that we learn from all this but when you consider Ukraine, Myanmar etc our education is proceeding in painfully slow increments.

[Compassionist]

[Replying to Compassionist in post #82

1. Good and evil, happiness and sadness, health and illness are not distributed evenly. If they were, all living things would have equal length of life, equal quality of life, and equal standards of living.
2. If God had made all living things all-knowing and all-powerful, they could protect themselves from all harm but he failed to do it.

Your argument presumes that the existence we presently experience is the only existence there is.

There is no evidence for any other kind of existence beyond our existence in this universe. I know that many people believe in various religions but that does not make those religions true.

[Compassionist]

Compassionist
Post 9 'God is the ultimate evil because he failed to prevent all suffering, injustice, and deaths despite being omniscient and omnipotent. "

Thomas123: Today is Holocaust Memorial Day and they still kill each other on the West Bank. 6,000,000
Jewish people killed by the Third Reich. Many nations share both collective and individual responsibility for this Evil atrocity.

This was raw evil. For people who consider this event in the context of God, it would appear akin to someone leaving an array of sharp knives on a Playschool floor.

I see it like this. This is exclusively of our own making. Yes we might have evolved better,...but we didn't. Collectively we as a species, allowed the reactor that is hate to overheat uncontrollably. Many brave people finally managed to contain this evil.

You would hope that we learn from all this but when you consider Ukraine, Myanmar etc our education is proceeding in painfully slow increments.

It's not our fault that we didn't evolve better. Selfish genes, make selfish organisms. Alpha meerkat mums murder the babies of other meerkats to reduce the competition her own babies will face for resources. 1 in 5 meerkats are murdered by meerkats. Most of the victims are baby meerkats. Humans are not the only species that commit murder. In fact, meerkats are number 1 for intraspecies murders.

[Compassionist]

I am an Agnostic Neutral which means I haven't decided that, should GOD exist, that GOD therefore, has to be regarded as evil.

I understand your position. How can God be real and good given all the suffering, injustice, and deaths? Surely, God's omniscience and omnipotence make him omniculpable?

[Thomas123]

Compassionist:It's not our fault that we didn't evolve better. Selfish genes, make selfish organisms. Alpha meerkat mums murder the babies of other meerkats to reduce the competition her own babies will face for resources.

Thomas123: You set a very dangerous precedent here, C.

You relieve us of our responsibilities under the pretext of having some apprehensions about 'rodents'.

What is soo singularly significant about this survival instinct? Predatory death, happens like wallpaper, ...its not evil,...it is what it is. Get used to it.

Gandhi once stated that you can define a nations morality by how they treat their animals. There is a definite correlation between the two . Even with that said, C, stop regarding these phenomenas in nature as anything resembling, our conscious and wilful use of expedient evil. We can do better, ...we just haven't started yet!

[Athetotheist]

[Replying to William in post #91

That there may exist other realities than just this one, is beside the point as the focus is on this one in relation to the problem of evil.

Evil is a problem only if existence is limited to what we presently experience.

[Athetotheist]

[Replying to Compassionist in post #93

There is no evidence for any other kind of existence beyond our existence in this universe. I know that many people believe in various religions but that does not make those religions true.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, the universe doesn't account for its own existence. That in itself is evidence of something beyond it.

[Athetotheist]

[Replying to Thomas123 in post #96

You relieve us of our responsibilities under the pretext of having some apprehensions about 'rodents'.

This is the core moral problem with every argument against free will. It absolves every individual of every wrongdoing by invoking the Selfish Gene Defense.

The very fact that we have the capacity to struggle against our selfish genes proves that we are not ruled by them. If we were, we would be nothing but selfish and there would be no struggle.

[William]

I am an Agnostic Neutral which means I haven't decided that, should GOD exist, that GOD therefore, has to be regarded as evil.

I understand your position. How can God be real and good given all the suffering, injustice, and deaths? Surely, God's omniscience and omnipotence make him omniculpable?

How do we come about learning compassion? Could we have learned it without experiencing suffering and injustice and death?

I think your question has merit re the idea of a creator/creators who are truly omniscient and omnipotent.

My answer to your question would be - "Such a creator/creators would be not be Omniculpable because in order for that to occur, these must be held accountable for failing to prevent all suffering, and injustice and death ... but what can hold truly omniscient and omnipotent beings accountable and acquire justice from that process?

Because it is impossible to bring such beings to justice, then that path of reasoning has to be abandoned and in order to let it go, one has to find a way in which to do so.

Since my position is Agnostic Neutral, I am able to do this...one step at a time...that is my journey and the reason for my journaling.

It requires developing a completely new mind-set.